"Fortune telling, twenty wen per reading. If it's wrong, no charge."
Xie Yu set up her stall and called out in a lively voice.
Housewives and market-goers turned to see the new Taoist in their alley, but they were thrifty folk and none of them thought anything was worth twenty wen.
Xie Yu shouted herself hoarse and did not get a single customer.
She bought a bowl of cold tea and a bowl of bean powder.
Fortune telling for a morning: income minus twenty.
By afternoon a quarrel broke out. The whole alley gathered, and Xie Yu bought a packet of sunflower seeds and listened in while she snacked. Soon she pieced together the argument.
Two sisters. The elder household was relatively well-off. The elder's wife lost a silver necklace and accused the younger household's child of stealing it.
The child cried loudly and denied it. The younger household's wife got angry and accused the elder's wife of slander. Plates smashed and pots clattered. The household matron rolled in the doorway. The scene climaxed.
The neighbors could not just watch. One suggested, "Hadn't a Taoist just shown up in our alley? Go ask them to divine. If wrong, no money needed."
So chewing seeds, Xie Yu unexpectedly got her first client.
They swarmed to her stall. The elderly woman sat on the bench in front of the stall, the child stood at her side, and four adults formed a ring behind them, casting a large shadow. Xie Yu felt enormous pressure under all those eyes.
A crowd had formed to watch.
She scanned around, comforted the red-eyed child, and tried to recall methods for finding lost items.
Before she came here, she had seen a post about using the Xiao Liu Ren method to locate lost things. It required pinching fingers. She held out her hand and pinched here and there with a fingernail. She had to admit she had been careless with her phone research and didn't actually know how to do it.
Faced with the expectant neighbors, she shut her eyes in misery and thought, this is what you get for not seriously scrolling social media.
When she reopened her eyes, she took a deep breath and began to study this family carefully.
She immediately noticed something was wrong.
The older sister of the family had dark circles under her eyes, her eyeballs were swollen, and her hand rested near her trouser pocket, rubbing her fingertips over and over.
Her nose twitched—she picked up a faint smell of tobacco.
"When did the item go missing?" she asked the older sister's wife.
"I only took the necklace off last night and put it at home. This morning, after making breakfast and washing the dishes, I wanted to put it back on and realized it was gone."
The moment she mentioned it, the woman's eyes reddened again. "That heartless brat! I treat her like my own daughter, even give her eggs when we have any, and she steals my necklace?"
"Master, you don't know how it is… our family already struggles to make ends meet. My wife not only works during the day, she often works night shifts to supplement our income. She says she's the eldest daughter, so she has to take responsibility for the family. But why does the second sister get to relax and enjoy life? And then steal from me?!"
The old mother panicked, slapped the table so hard that a few drops of Xie Yu's herbal tea spilled.
"Eldest daughter-in-law, watch your mouth! You're all one family—how can you talk like that?!"
"I will talk like that! Mother-in-law, you're biased—am I not allowed to say it? Before I married, I was a little lady in my own home. Did I become the second daughter's maid after entering this family?"
Seeing the two about to start another argument, Xie Yu quickly intervened.
"Calm down, calm down. The most important thing right now is finding the necklace."
"You, sit," she beckoned to the eldest daughter, then turned to the older woman. "Madam, trust me. Come, let your eldest daughter sit."
The old lady got up, and the eldest daughter sat down.
"Your hand," Xie Yu said.
She pulled the woman's hand over and felt it, paying close attention to the calluses. They weren't uniform—some old, some new.
Casually, she asked, "How many years have you been working?"
"Well… our family is poor. I started doing labor around fifteen or sixteen. It's been eight or nine years now."
But the calluses told a different story—not all were work calluses.
Her wife started crying again.
"I just feel so sorry for her! Why did the second daughter only start working at eighteen? We support their household!"
"Sigh, yes, you've had it hard. It's only natural to feel distressed for your spouse."
Xie Yu soothed the wife with one hand and tugged lightly at the eldest daughter's sleeve with the other.
"This clothing is old too, isn't it? I'm sure your wife wants to buy you a new set."
The wife nodded quickly.
But the eldest daughter shrank back, forcing a laugh. "Yes… yes, she does."
Xie Yu slid two fingers into the sleeve and pinched out a small slip of paper. Her expression darkened, and she glared fiercely.
"You think you deserve new clothes? You damned gambler."
"Here—your pawn ticket."
She unfolded it, glanced at it, then slapped it onto the table, turning to the wife.
"Your spouse has a gambling addiction. She plays pai gow so much she has calluses from it. And those 'night shifts'? I'd guess she's been spending every evening gambling."
"Your necklace wasn't stolen by the child at all. She stole it, pawned it, and used the money to gamble. This is the pawn slip."
Both the wife and the old mother froze. They snatched the slip, read it, and erupted in disbelief, beating the woman lightly.
"How did you end up like this?!"
Another episode of family drama unfolded right before Xie Yu's eyes.
She happily sipped her herbal tea and watched them cry, scold, huddle together, and finally return to their home.
Satisfied, she set down her bowl, but her face suddenly paled.
"You didn't pay me! The money! I was accurate!"
But the door had already shut. The clatter of pots and pans resumed, drowning out her feeble protest.
She dropped her forehead onto the table.
Among the people, there were not only villains—there were also people who owed her twenty coins.
Luckily, all the neighbors had witnessed the scene. Their original doubts about a young Daoist vanished completely; they began lining up for readings.
Some didn't even need fortune telling but went to call relatives anyway—accurate Daoists were rare.
—
Customer: "Master, my spouse keeps hitting me. What should I do?"
Xie Yu: "You have a kitchen knife, right? A sickle works too. Every night before your spouse falls asleep, you sharpen it—make sure they can hear it."
—
An elderly woman:
"Master, my child refuses to go on matchmaking appointments. How can that be? Marriage and children are Heaven's law! Please check if some demon has bewitched her."
Xie Yu looked at the young person dragged over—about her age, and their arranged match was someone five or six years older. They stood limp in front of her stall, silent.
A fellow sufferer.
She gave them a knowing look.
Opposing forced marriage is everyone's duty.
"Madam, your child carries great destiny. Both the literary and martial stars shine upon her. How can she marry now? She must establish a career before settling down—otherwise her fortune is too strong and will overpower her spouse."
—
By the end, she wasn't just telling fortunes—she was mediating disputes.
"You two may be relatives, but if a mother saved two chicken legs for her child, you can't take them for your daughter the moment you walk in. Then what is their kid supposed to eat? Of course the child was angry. Yes, throwing hot water was excessive—but you weren't really burned, right? Just some scratches."
She turned to a woman whose face was scratched like a fishing net.
"Listen to me—go buy four chicken legs and apologize properly."
The woman opened her mouth, but Xie Yu cut her off:
"Four! Don't be stingy and buy only two."
Then she turned to the child.
"And you—after eating the four chicken legs, don't hold a grudge. Yes, you should defend your rights, but you went too far. You two families still have to visit the ancestral hall together—don't make it ugly."
—
By the end of the day, she felt spiritually enlightened.
Even in ancient times, she somehow lived the life of a modern neighborhood police mediator.
And she was surprisingly good at it.
The sun was about to set when another customer sat before her.
"Master, my spouse went to the Third Princess's lands to work as a tenant farmer. They say the northern mountains aren't peaceful. Please draw a talisman for protection."
Xie Yu expertly drew a righteous five-point star with a cinnabar, then looked up.
"Whose land?"
"The Third Princess's, of course. Didn't she get betrothed to the Regent?"
This customer was talkative. Seeing Xie Yu didn't know, she eagerly explained:
"That General Shen—the one who fought into the capital. Her troops are camped outside the northern city, right? There's lots of wild land and mountains to cultivate. They're hiring workers."
"To be honest, we didn't want to go at first. That General Shen… well…"
She lowered her voice.
"People call her the Black Ghost. Who dares work for her?"
"But the wages are good, and it's not working for her—it's working for the Third Princess. Working for the princess is like working for Her Majesty. It's not like they'll harm common folk, right?"
Xie Yu took a deep breath, asked for more details, finished the talisman, and sent the customer away.
Then she packed up her stall.
"For today, that's it. I won't open tomorrow—come register with me if you want priority the day after."
After storing her supplies at her temporary lodging, she inquired about the Valiant Army's current location.
Traveling overnight, she arrived in the northern outskirts by mid-morning.
Near a few small hills beside the camp, the sight was bustling: soldiers at registration tables recruiting workers and farmers.
Others were making announcements:
"Our wages are high—this is the Third Princess's land!"
"The Third Princess would never exploit commoners!"
She bought several jugs of herbal tea and spoke with tenants who had worked there for a while. They said that these days, when people protested certain policies, the Valiant Army resolved everything by saying:
"This was arranged by the Third Princess."
"Do you dare question a royal princess?"
Shen Changyin was using her royal status to take control of the northern outskirts.
After listening, Xie Yu fell silent and climbed a nearby hill to wait.
Near noon, a familiar group of figures appeared in front of the camp.
The rider on the white horse was unmistakable—cool, distant features, expression calm as a still lake. She passed by the soldiers chanting "Third Princess" without a single glance.
Xie Yu suddenly realized something: Shen Changyin's face was almost unfamiliar. She barely ever smiled.
The Second Princess had warned her—no matter how gentle Shen Changyin appeared, she would never go soft when using someone.
And Xie Yu, in her desperation to break the engagement, had forgotten that for someone like Shen Changyin—
using her required no marriage at all.
The legendary general Shen swung off her horse, the tips of her black hair drawing an elegant arc through the air.
Xie Yu lowered her eyes, dropped from her perch on the pine tree, and clenched her fingers until they whitened.
—
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